REPLY COMMENTS OF THE ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE ASSOCIATION
The Entertainment Software Association (“ESA”) is pleased to provide these Reply Comments in response to the Copyright Office’s Notice of Inquiry (“NOI”) concerning the operation of Section 1201 of the Copyright Act.
ESA’s initial comments in this proceeding explained how Section 1201 has benefitted both consumers and creators by providing important legal protection to back up the technological measures that protect creative works and enable new products, services and business models. Section 1201 has been critical in the development of the modern digital marketplace, and that is particularly so within the video game industry. Video game publishers and online game platform providers rely on access and copy controls to limit infringement of their games, and protections applied to video game consoles have allowed them to become platforms for lawful distribution of a wide variety of game-related and non-game content. Confronted with hackers working hard to break every new security measure, and with commercial operators seeking to profit from video game infringement enabled by circumvention, the video game industry has successfully invoked the Copyright Act’s protections against circumvention on numerous occasions.
